Virgin Mobile to enter Indian market

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile is taking on its larger rivals in India.

Virgin has signed an agreement with Indian industrial group Tata as it seeks to take a slice of the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market.

Branson said the Virgin brand would target young Indians under a franchise agreement with Tata Teleservices – half of India’s 1.1billion population are under 25.

'Virgin Mobile’s strategy is different. We want to deliver a more tailored, more relevant offering for a single, distinct segment. We are not pursuing scale for scale’s sake,' Branson said at a press conference in Mumbai.

Virgin Mobile plans to cater to youths through targeted marketing, advertising and incentives to capture some of the eight million new mobile subscribers in India each month.

Virgin expects that in the next three years India will add at least 50 million young subscribers, who will generate more than £175 billion in mobile service revenue. It hopes to claim five million subscribers within three years.